Celtic should disclose transfer fees to the supporters
Why are clubs allowed to not disclose the fees they pay and receive for assets without telling supporters or shareholders the true cost. How is that universally accepted in the game?
How much Celtic?
We’ve all seen the posts online from the club. Celtic sign player for undisclosed amount. The club can announce a new signing, tell us the length of his contract, give us photographs, interviews and videos — yet the transfer itself can simply be described as being an “undisclosed fee.” To me, that isn’t acceptable. We as fans should know exactly what clubs are spending on our behalf. A good example of this is the pending Arne Engels move to West Ham. A fee of around £22 million is being reported which is short of the £25 million the club were meant to have rejected in the summer. That is the kind of behaviour that deserves scrutiny. Why would the club accept less than they previously were offered late in the January window? To me that doesn’t make sense. There may be reasonable explanations for things like this but the club communicates as little a possible as a strategy.
Ok, figures normally appear elsewhere within a fee hours, however there appears to be no general rule for this. One paper might say £5million. Another may say £4million plus add ons. Unless the club reports the exact figures you have to take anything in the media with caution. The specific figure leaked to the media might have come from the buying club or the selling club, both have different agenda’s for inflating or downplaying the specific fee.
Celtic aren’t doing anything unusual
Celtic as a club aren’t doing anything outwith the norm. This is not an accusation that they are acting unlike other clubs. Undisclosed transfer fees are extremely common throughout British football and clubs appear to be under no obligation to declare the exact amount they have spent. However, just because something is common practice doesn’t make it good practice and this is an area where Celtic should be an industry leader in my opinion. Transparency is important to help rebuild trust with the fans.
Supporters contribute enormous amounts to the club through season tickets, match tickets, merchandise and other spending. They deserve clarity around the management and running of the club. Transfer fees are apart of that. How can recruitment be accurately judged if the accurate figures are not disclosed to the supporters? The lack of transparency should be explained, maybe there is a good reason for it that we are not aware of.
This isn’t the fans asking for players exact salaries to be disclosed. The basic economics of buying and selling players are fundamental to understanding the performance of those running the football operation.
It might not be a huge concern to the fans but it’s all part of the transparency currently lacking at the club. Undisclosed doesn’t mean that the figure is hidden but it might mean it’s not accurately reported in the media. So who does that really help?
Greater transparency doesn’t have to mean publishing the entire transfer agreement. A simple announcement could say something like:
Celtic have agreed an initial transfer fee of £5million, with potential performance-related payments of up to a further £2million.
If that level of information is confirmed then Celtic will know on a basic level whether a transfer dealing has been a success or not. This is one of a number of areas that the club could look at how it currently operates and make improvements.
As I said, there might be perfectly good reasons why a transfer cannot be disclosed. It might also be it helps the club avoid scrutiny. Either way I hope Celtic reviews this practice as part of how the club currently communicates with fans.
Tim Lisbon
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